The top judge in Victoria who steered the Supreme Court through the COVID-19 pandemic is stepping down after 14 years on the bench.
A Melbourne solicitor has been fined for applying for compensation on behalf of twenty clients from the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal for the installation of CCTV systems by a company which she had an interest in.
A Sleeping Duck shareholder has been ordered to pay the company’s costs on an indemnity basis in its failed oppression suit, with a judge finding that its decisions to reject Sleeping Duck’s buy-out offers of roughly $4 million were unreasonable.
Class action settlement approval hearings are not a time for the court to second guess a law firm’s contingency fee as set down in a group costs order, a judge has found, but the question of proportionality is still key, and evidence of a firm’s return on investment and hourly fees may be relevant to the final decision.
Several insurers have won a dispute with two Melbourne businesses about whether an industrial special risks policy can cover losses suffered during COVID-19 lockdowns, with a judge finding the policy did not respond just because there were recorded cases in Melbourne.
A retired Melbourne lawyer has been found unfit to practice after a review of his conduct demonstrated “discourteous, gratuitous, and offensive” conduct towards legal officials during proceedings related to his attempts to benefit from an elderly client’s estate.
The top judge of the NSW Supreme Court, which has seen a precipitous drop in class actions, has defended his court and taken shots at the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Federal Court for embracing contingency fees for class action lawyers.
General Motors has failed to overturn a decision that put it on the hook for the applicant’s full costs in a partial settlement in a class action on behalf of Holden dealers, with an appeals court finding GM could not “walk away” from the ordinary meaning of the phrase ‘the plaintiff’s costs of the proceedings’.
A former client of Moray & Agnew alleges the law firm waited six years after taking instructions before providing it with a costs agreement, claiming it racked up a $330,000 legal bill during this time.
Former top silk Norman O’Bryan will face court this month on charges following civil findings he engaged in a fraudulent scheme as senior counsel for the Banksia Securities class action.